Michael Begg surrounds himself with sound at Sonica in Glasgow They are a form of theatre. They are compositions in space that effectively pull one into a sense of something other, another time, place, dimension. There is often a narrative waiting to be interpreted. Often, too, there is scenery and sound, and some form of […]

From a door at the rear of the performance space a figure emerges – tall, proud, disturbing. A dream image; an archetype of Noh theatre – a warrior with a silver mask shining in the blue stage lights, smoke curling around his feet. His precise, staccato movements dominate the stage, accompanied by a crash of […]

  Two Scandinavian companies brought their explorations of circus and gender to this year’s Circus City, Bristol’s biennial circus festival. The most powerful image that stays with me from all-male Swedish company Sisters’ exploration of precision physical interaction – Clockwork – is of men flying through the air, pole to pole, like silent gibbons. Not […]

Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls. It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world. Yes indeedy. Once upon a time The Kink’s Lola was my signature tune when plying my trade as an ‘exotic dancer’. In those days (mid 1970s), I saw myself as a kind of drag artist – playing […]

Snail trails, bear-baiting, and Rice Krispies. Miriam King witnesses three performance works at National Theatre Studio on the last day of SPILL Festival 2015 The durational Snail Portrait, performed over four hours, is a new immersive work combining performance, visuals, text and installation, inspired by the Persian phrase ‘khane be doosh’, meaning ‘home on your […]